Four-way servers that include Intel's next-generation, 64-bit Itanium 2 processor will sell for about $41,000, Intel says. It's an early indicator of Itanium 2 pricing--still undisclosed--and demonstrates how Intel is counting on the new processor to vault its products into higher-priced servers and take market share from Sun Microsystems. Itanium 2 deliveries are expected in July, Intel sources say.
The Itanium 2 server price estimate, disclosed at a technical presentation at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Friday, is for a four-processor system running at 1 GHz, with 32 Gbytes of RAM, and a 3-Mbyte on-die memory cache. Intel released the performance specs for Itanium 2 late last month.
The average selling price of Intel-based servers is much lower. Market researcher International Data Corp. says Intel-based systems account for 88.4% of the unit volume of servers delivered to customers. Most of those servers feature 32-bit Xeon chips, and most Xeon-based systems sell for less than $25,000, Intel says.
News source: InformationWeek - Intel To Price Itanium 2 Servers Around $41,000
